Page 496 - the-idiot

this unexpected and apparently uncalled-for outbreak; but
the poor prince’s painful and rambling speech gave rise to
a strange episode.
‘Why do you say all this here?’ cried Aglaya, suddenly.
‘Why do you talk like this to THEM?’
She appeared to be in the last stages of wrath and irrita-
tion; her eyes flashed. The prince stood dumbly and blindly
before her, and suddenly grew pale.
‘There is not one of them all who is worthy of these words
of yours,’ continued Aglaya. ‘Not one of them is worth your
little finger, not one of them has heart or head to compare
with yours! You are more honest than all, and better, no-
bler, kinder, wiser than all. There are some here who are
unworthy to bend and pick up the handkerchief you have
just dropped. Why do you humiliate yourself like this, and
place yourself lower than these people? Why do you debase
yourself before them? Why have you no pride?’
‘My God! Who would ever have believed this?’ cried Mrs.
Epanchin, wringing her hands.
‘Hurrah for the ‘poor knight’!’ cried Colia.
‘Be quiet! How dare they laugh at me in your house?’ said
Aglaya, turning sharply on her mother in that hysterical
frame of mind that rides recklessly over every obstacle and
plunges blindly through proprieties. ‘Why does everyone,
everyone worry and torment me? Why have they all been
bullying me these three days about you, prince? I will not
marry you—never, and under no circumstances! Know that
once and for all; as if anyone could marry an absurd crea-
ture like you! Just look in the glass and see what you look